The ATAM process consists of gathering stakeholders together to analyze business drivers (system functionality, goals, constraints, desired non-functional properties) and from these drivers extract quality attributes that are used to create scenarios. These scenarios are then used in conjunction with architectural approaches and architectural decisions to create an analysis of trade-offs, sensitivity points, and risks (or non-risks). This analysis can be converted to risk themes and their impacts whereupon the process can be repeated. With every analysis cycle, the analysis process proceeds from the more general to the more specific, examining the questions that have been discovered in the previous cycle, until such time as the architecture has been fine-tuned and the risk themes have been addressed.

Present ATAM – Present the concept of ATAM to the stakeholders, and answer any questions about the process.

Present business drivers – everyone in the process presents and evaluates the business drivers for the system in question.

Present the architecture – the architect presents the high level architecture to the team, with an 'appropriate level of detail'

Identify architectural approaches – different architectural approaches to the system are presented by the team, and discussed.

Generate quality attribute utility tree – define the core business and technical requirements of the system, and map them to an appropriate architectural property. Present a scenario for this given requirement.

Analyze architectural approaches – Analyze each scenario, rating them by priority. The architecture is then evaluated against each scenario.

Brainstorm and prioritize scenarios – among the larger stakeholder group, present the current scenarios, and expand.

These steps are separated in two phases: Phase 1 consists of steps 1-6 and after this phase, the state and context of the project, the driving architectural requirements and the state of the architectural documentation are known. Phase 2 consists of steps 7-9 and finishes the evaluation[3]